Can social media impact your business? While social is no universal replacement for a brick-and-mortar shop or e-commerce site, it certainly offers digital storefront and shopping capabilities, subscription options, and — if anything — free marketing solutions for your brand.

Today, 4.7 billion people are on social media and they spend an average of almost 2.5 hours per day on their preferred platforms. If you’re on social media, then you know first-hand the relationship we as humans tend to have with social media: it is undeniably time-consuming, entertaining, and a source of solace, connection, and inspiration. You likely also recognize the negative aspects of it, too: the false expectations it leaves us with, the lifeless ads and content that steal our time, the bullying and harm.

In that way, it can be challenging to understand what impact your social channels are making on the community, your audience, and your business. This is why measuring your success using social media KPIs (or key performance indicators) is so important. Using KPIs, we get a sense of what people like or don’t like (even if they don’t tell us) and this helps to inform your content and your business.

What is a “KPI”?
KPI stands for key performance indicator, which is essentially a quantifier (or “metric”) that helps us understand performance from a data/numbers-first approach. They exist across many disciplines but, for the sake of this article, we’ll only touch on social media.

To help you better understand and measure success on social media, I’ve rounded up a handful of example business goals and the social KPIs to match.

Business goal: Brand awareness

Goal definition: Brand awareness is the extent to which consumers are familiar with the distinctive qualities or image of a particular brand of goods or services.

Why you would use this goal: This is a great goal to have if you’re a new business/brand, you’ve recently re-branded (changed how your business looks or operates), or you’re working on growing your audience or customer base.

Social KPIs:

• Impressions
• Reach
• Reach Rate
• Video Views

Business goal: Connection

Goal definition: Connection can be thought of as emotional appeal or having a deeper relationship with your audience.

Why you would use this goal: People want to connect with brands and communities that resonate with them. They want to feel moved, entertained, and impacted in a significant way. This goal is great if you usually share promotional or sales-heavy content because it allows you to start building a relationship with your audience.

Social KPIs:

• Engagement
• Engagement Rate
• Account Mentions
• Social Sentiment

Business goal: Credibility

Goal definition: Brand credibility refers to the extent to which an individual believes in the trustworthiness and expertise of a brand. Brands often compete for this in markets that are highly saturated. An example of this is skincare where there is a large number of similar brands competing for the same customer.

Why you would use this goal: Credibility is the backbone of trust. In a world where everyone is competing for their dollar, your potential customer wants to know they’re getting something that is high quality, high value, and high reward. Improving your credibility helps show your audience why your brand matters and why they should be a part of your brand community.

Social KPIs:

• Account Mentions
• Social Sentiment
• Engagement Rate
• Amplification Rate

Business goal: Motivate purchasing

Goal definition: To motivate purchase behavior is to help get your target audience in the purchase mindset and see the benefits of your brand and product.

Why you would use this goal: This is probably an obvious one — sales keep your business afloat!

Social KPIs:

• Post Saves
• Social Sentiment
• Click-Through Rate
• Engagement/Inquiries Volume

Business goal: Loyalty

Goal definition: Brand loyalty can be thought of as customers choosing your brand time and time again. It’s when your customers are in love, they’re obsessed, and they don’t feel the need or desire to look elsewhere. And in ideal cases, they even tell their friends, family, and community about you.

Why you would use this goal: You might think to motivate purchase or sales is the most lucrative goal to have. But in reality, loyalty is more important! Loyalty means you don’t have to work as hard or spend as much money to constantly motivate your audience to purchase again and again. Loyalty does the heavy lifting and even helps you to recruit new customers with little effort.

Social KPIs:

• Audience Growth Rate
• Amplification Rate
• Account Mentions
• Subscriptions

With this knowledge, I encourage you to dive into your social analytics and get curious. What types of content does your audience love most? When did your follow count spike and what was posted or happened that day to influence it? Who’s posting about or mentioning you and why? Social KPIs are only a gateway to understanding your audience. But once you do, you’ll unlock a ton of insights on how to better serve your customers and achieve your business goals.